


Rub Your Back and Play With Your Hair

by Willow_Angel



Series: Cherik Playlist [6]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Charles can't sit still, Cherik Playlist, Erik is a Sweetheart, Erik is a little annoyed by it, Guy Sebastian, Like It Like That, M/M, Nightmares, Smitten Erik, Songfic, THIS IS BASICALLY PLOTLESS I'M NOT SURE WHERE THIS CAME FROM, inspired by fidget spinners, kinda like me, this doesn't actually involve fidget spinners btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 13:28:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11760867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willow_Angel/pseuds/Willow_Angel
Summary: It became quickly known to Erik that Charles had a hard time sitting still for very long.





	Rub Your Back and Play With Your Hair

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't posted anything in SO LONG!!! ARGH!!!
> 
> So, have this?? I'm not sure why this happened but it happened and it's alright, so TAKE IT. TAKE THE CHERIK I HAVE TO OFFER.
> 
> I'm working on a longer Cherik fic that will be finished in like 300 years, and who knows when the inspiration will hit me to post something again, ahaha... don't kill me please.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! :D
> 
> (Title and opening/closing italics from "Like It Like That" by Guy Sebastian.)

_You know I make it right  
I’m at your command_

 

It became quickly known to Erik that Charles had a hard time sitting still for very long. It wasn’t uncommon to see Charles’s fingers tapping away on a table or chair, or even the side of a glass. In fact, he didn’t seem to notice he was doing it, as it was just a little habit he’d acquired.

At first Erik was distracted by it, with half his focus on what Charles was saying and half on whatever noise Charles’s tapping was making. It annoyed him – years of torture under Shaw’s hand had taught him to always be still, because you could never really know if there was someone watching you.

If Charles was talking and had a pen in his hand, he would begin twirling it around his fingers as he spoke. He did it expertly, and rarely slowed or dropped the pen. It was like he’d been doing it since he was born. It was fascinating, really.

Erik later found out the origin of why Charles’s fingers would randomly start tapping on his knee or a glass or the arm of the chair – he pretended that he didn’t hear Charles’s quiet humming that matched the pace of his tapping, but he would never forget the beautiful music that he made when he sat in front of a piano.

Sometimes Charles’s leg would bounce up and down when he got excited. Over their late-night chess games, his leg would just start bouncing up and down without warning. Charles never seemed to notice any of these things, and whenever anybody pointed them out he would shrug, but he wouldn’t apologise or stop what he was doing.

Of course, Erik certainly wasn’t complaining when the two of them were in bed together. He wasn’t complaining when Charles was squirming underneath him, moving and moaning. He loved how Charles dragged his fingernails down Erik’s back, the feeling making Erik shiver. He loved how Charles’s hands never stopped moving, and how those delicate fingers never ceased to find new places to explore and touch and give a new, and exciting sensation to.

After they’d both exhausted themselves, having worked away at each other for so long, Charles’s fingers carded through Erik’s hair and tapped and drew along his chest and arms. Every touch sent little jolts of electricity through Erik, like Charles was the only thing giving him energy.

Even in his sleep, Charles never seemed to be able to stop moving. He shifted in Erik’s arms, sometimes completely turning over without realising it. In fact, it was so common for Charles to move in his sleep that it took far too long for Erik to realise that he was having a nightmare.

He cupped Charles’s face and talked to him, gently shaking him awake. Charles’s eyes shot open wide with fear and he all but jumped into Erik’s arms, burying his face in the crook of Erik’s neck and shaking. When Erik asked him what was wrong, Charles just shook his head and clung tighter to Erik. Erik was normally the opposite of Charles, still and stoic, but now he began to gently rock Charles back and forth and run his fingers through Charles’s hair, whispering sweet nothings into his ear. He told Charles how much he loved him, how that he would always be by Charles, through good and through bad, for better or for worse, and Charles chastely kissed his collarbone.

When Charles had calmed down, he was strangely still. It put Erik on high alert – why was Charles, always happy and moving and smiling, still and silent and crying? Erik kissed Charles’s soft hair, damp with sweat, and asked him if he was okay.

Charles shook his head again, and sighed. He wanted to talk, that much Erik could tell. He felt the tension in Charles’s back and shoulders and neck, the tension that Erik always noticed while Charles was thinking about something he both did and didn’t want to talk about. So once again, Erik asked Charles what was wrong. And Charles began to talk.

The things he said made Erik see red. Unbeknownst to Erik and possibly even Raven, Charles had been hurt. He had suffered through the pain of losing parents and lived through the abuse of a stepfather and stepbrother. He had lived through a war, both literally and metaphorically, and had somehow come out the other end so _good_ and so pure. Erik wondered how he did it.

Then Erik felt guilt. He felt horrible for every time he had called Charles naïve and stupid and ignorant because he hadn’t gone through what Erik had, because he hadn’t suffered through watching people you care about dying right in front of you. Charles _had_ suffered, he had been mentally and emotionally and physically tortured just like Erik had been, just in a different way.

God, Erik was the stupid one. How had he not seen that Charles had hidden his pain and suffering behind smiles and kind words, the same things that Erik had fallen in love with? And now, because Erik loved him, he held Charles closer to him, rubbing his back and kissing his hair.

When they lay back down, they held onto each other for dear life before drifting back into sleep.

The next morning, Charles had thanked him for helping him, and Erik didn’t know what to say. It seemed like he never knew what to say to Charles, now more than ever. So instead, Erik kissed him. He kissed Charles like the kisses were the air he needed to breathe, because it was true. Charles melted into his arms and Erik held him impossibly close.

“I love you,” he said to Charles.

Charles smiled, and his gentle hands cupped Erik’s face. “I love you too,” he replied, and kissed him again. His fingers ran across Erik’s cheekbones and over his neck and through his hair, and Erik wanted to cry with relief. Charles was okay. He was going to be okay. They were going to be okay.

Everything was going to be okay.

 

_You can tell me anything you want,  
You know I’m gonna understand_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


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